The Incoming and Outgoing Leaders of Indonesia - On a Theoretical Perspective

Dyah Ayu Wanodyasari
Indonesia - 05/01/2005
  "Democracy has won!" The sentence would perhaps describe Indonesia’s feeling in welcoming its new president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono or “SBY”, when the election commission (KPU) announced the result of the presidential poll and made him the president-elect of Republic of Indonesia 2004-2009 on October 4. He won 60.62% from total 116,662,705 voters, which mean 69,266,350 of them had voted for him over his rival, former president Mrs. Megawati Sukarnoputri.

He has indeed won the gallop. There is no need, then, to argue whether he is or not the best candidate. People had spoken their mind and put their faith upon him. In any case, Indonesia is a country which people had been disappointed by its previous leaders. Now that they can finally decide their own president; they would, no doubt, want him to change the condition.

The question now is: What makes him special? The executive director of the Indonesian Survey Institute, Denny JA, had something to say about it, as stated on Wikipedia, "You have to remember that 60% of the population only graduated from elementary school, so they don’t investigate candidates too closely. When we ask people who is most competent to run the economy and security, people put SBY first. Whatever the truth, that’s the perception and perception matters."

Whatever the case may be, most people accepted the outcome. Public opinion has been shaped: SBY is a leader who will hopefully bring fresh chance to the nation’s expectations for a more promising future after the persisting failures, regardless the issue of his military background and his vague policies. The fact, though, he simply poured out numerous promises in the campaign as any other candidates did, without bringing up the strategies he would use to achieve the purposes.

He spoke of fighting terrorism in Indonesia as a part of global anti terror campaign, which has caused troubles in Indonesia within these last few years. When the country has not yet fully recovered from the Bali blast in 2002 and the JW Marriott bombing in the next year, another attack had exploded a huge car bomb outside the Australian Embassy in Jakarta on September 9. It killed nine people and wounded almost two more hundreds. The three tragedies were happened when Mrs. Megawati was in charge. Thus, SBY would definitely gain more of people's trust if he could repair the loss, decrease hostilities, and track down those who were responsible for the acts.

Another promised was pledged to increase the economic growth rate to 7.6% in order to lower unemployment, while Megawati could only assure 6.8%. People might not take notice to the numbers, but the last three years, which was still tough for the lower classes, have spoken enough.

What is not less significant is, of course, the guarantee of eliminating poverty. SBY affirmed his determination upon the issue by, first of all, to tackle the corruption practices in the governing body. It is no secret that corruption fighting was still lip service under Megawati’s presidency. Several affairs related to her closest people were exposed, including the 73,000 tons of illegal sugar smuggled from Thailand and the rampant corruption in the body of the country’s national oil company, Pertamina. Vice president Jusuf Kalla even claimed, as reported by Asia Views, they would re-examine SBY’s ex-boss, former president Suharto.

Well, talking is always easier to do. In contrast, so far the investigations to corruption cases were often failed by the reason that the suspects were too sick to stand on trial. The tendency that most corruption suspects used this tactic to avoid from being examined, including Suharto, could not encourage the government to set things right. If SBY and Jusuf Kalla would ever be able to get him to court, that would be a real major turn out. Many people are being pessimistic about the prospect, as Megawati could not do too much either. Yet, what else could these people do but buying his words, and giving him the next five years to prove?

On the contrary, time was the least Megawati had. Within the short three year reign, it was almost like a mission impossible for her, or anyone else, to repair the country. Had she been given her second term, perhaps she would have been able to talk more. Unfortunately for her, people no longer can wait. Numbers and statistics showing the improvement of the country’s macroeconomic – including the returning of per capita income to the level before the crisis happened and lower inflation, according to Asia Times – are not enough when the old faces in the government cannot stop the old habit of using their position for their self-advantage. "People are really disappointed with the government's performance," said Daniel Sparingga, a political analyst at the Airlangga University of Surabaya on BBC News.

It does not really matter who actually won the election, for the same people and parties who were related to Suharto’s New Order regime backed the candidates. Both sides expressed ambiguous purpose for aspiring reformation while, at the same time, presenting people whom they should have been opposed. Will it work, in that case? One probably needs a different kind of approach to see it.

There have been various attempts to get Indonesia out off its numerous crises. During 1998-2004, four presidents have led the country: Suharto, Habibie, Gus Dur, and Megawati. Each had its own plans, but most was fruitless. Yet, instead of lacking of time, there is another substantial resemblance among them. In order to build a strong government, a president needs to have 'experienced' people on its cabinet. While 'experienced' does not always imply that the person had the same position before, often that was the situation: Habibie was helped by some of those who worked for Suharto, Gus Dur was supported by the persons on Habibie’s presidency, as well as Megawati was propped up by Gus Dur’s ministers.

Sadly, the link seems likely to still go on, seeing that Indonesia’s human resource level is in wealthy quantity, but poor in quality. Even so, people are all looking forward to see actual changes this time, as they have enough of those earlier leaders who could not change the condition as they would have expected.

SBY might gain some benefits here. He is the first president who is voted by people. Thus, he will have to b responsible to them, instead of the representatives. Unlike his predecessors, he gained his position by winning people’s heart through surprisingly fair elections, as Jimmy Carter said on the International Herald Tribune. He made an excellent start, and theoretically has total five years to bring his words into actions, although the country’s urgency would require him to act as soon as possible. Supposedly, his presidency should be able to learn from the past and not to repeat the same blunders, if he could keep up his consistency. If he really did, furthermore, it also means he would perform his plan of building a corruption-free administration and carry on the investigation upon those who are still related.

Indonesia might in fact have missed its opportunity for a quick revival after the 1998 reformation. Yet, as the columnist Wimar Witoelar said on the Australian Financial Review; Indonesia is a showcase for democracy. One thing noted is that the two presidents have their part in it. The departing president, Megawati, while had been criticized for her silence and indecisiveness, made a great achievement by making the direct election possible. The president-elect, SBY, on the other hand, will continue her work in building the country with the support of the people. To end with, finally people’s voice is heard. It was when Indonesia, now the third largest democratic country after the USA and India, learned its democracy.

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